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I’m Imran molla.

How to Encourage More Creative Thinking

Have you ever wished you were more creative?

If you do creative work, have you ever suffered from a creative block and been stuck wondering what exactly is wrong, and how you can get yourself out of it?

Of course you have, I mean, who hasn’t?

Let’s talk about that.

 

How to Boost Your Creative Thinking

When it comes to creativity, one of our biggest concerns is usually how we can be more creative, or come up with better ideas.

Research in this area is all over the place, but I’ve gathered some of the most practical studies out there to help you utilize specific techniques that can boost your creativity.

All of these studies are useful for everyday creativity in daily life, so try a few out for yourself and see which ones work best for you.

1.) Restrict yourself

Later on I will show you how external restrictions can hurt creativity, but right now I’m talking about internal restrictions, which can actually be used to boost creativity!

The research shows that an insidious problem that many people have is that they will often take the path of “least mental resistance,” building on ideas they already have or trying to use every resource at hand.

The thing is, the research also suggests the placing self-imposed limitations can boost creativity because it forces even creative people to work outside of their comfort zone (which they still have, even if they are a bit “weirder” than most).

One of the most famous examples is when Dr. Seuss produced Green Eggs & Ham after a bet where he was challenged by his editor to produce an entire book in under 50 different words.

I’m no Dr. Seuss, but I’ve found (and I’m sure other writers can relate) that when I’m suddenly restricted to writing something in 500 words when I had planned to write it in 800 words, it can lead to some pretty creative workarounds.

Try limiting your work in some way and you may see the benefits of your brain coming up with creative solutions to finish a project around the parameters you’ve set.

2.) Re-conceptualize the problem

One thing that researchers have noticed with especially creative people is that they tend to re-conceptualize the problem more often than their less creative counterparts.

That means, instead of thinking of a cut-and-dry end goal to certain situations, they sit back and examine the problem in different ways before beginning to work.

Here’s a candid example — as a writer who handles content strategyfor startups, my “cookie cutter” end goal is something like “write popular articles.” The problem is, if I approach an article with the mindset of, “What can I write that will get a lot of tweets?”, I won’t come up with something very good.

However, if I step back and examine the problem from another angle, such as: “What sort of articles really resonate with people and capture their interest?”, I’m focusing on a far better fundamental part of the problem, and I’ll achieve my other goals by coming up with something more original.

So, if you find yourself stagnating by focusing on generic problems (“What would be something cool to paint?”), try to re-conceptualize the problem by focusing on a more meaningful angle (“What sort of painting evokes the feeling of loneliness that we all encounter after a break-up?”).

3.) Create psychological distance

While it’s long been known that abstaining from a task (again, more on that later) is useful for breaking through a creative block, it also seems that creating “psychological” distance may also be useful.

Subjects in this study were able to solve twice as many insight problems when asked to think about the source of the task as distant, rather than it being close in proximity.

Try to imagine your creative task as being disconnected and distant from your current position/location. According to this research, this may make the problem more accessible and can encourage higher level thinking.

4.) Daydream… and then get back to work!

Although study after study confirms that daydreaming and napping can help with the creative thought process, there is one piece of research that everybody seems to leave out…

One study in particular shows that the less work you’ve done on a problem, the less daydreaming will help you.

That is, daydreaming and incubation are most effective on a project you’ve already invested a lot of creative effort into.

So before you try to use naps and daydreams as an excuse for not working, be honest with yourself and don’t forget to hustle first!

5.) Embrace something absurd

While I’ll be covering the case for “weird” experiences in more detail later on, for now you need to know that the research suggests that reading/experiencing something absurd or surreal can help boost pattern recognition and creative thinking.

(Subjects in the study read Franz Kafka, but even stories like Alice in Wonderland have been suggested by psychologists)

The conclusion was that the mind is always seeking to make sense of the things that it sees, and surreal/absurd art puts the mind in “overdrive” for a short period while it tries to work out just exactly what it is looking at or reading.

I like reading interesting short stories like The Last Question or browsing absurdist art at places like r/HeavyMind when I’m looking for some inspiration.

6.) Separate work from consumption

Also known as the “absorb state,” this technique has been shown to help with the incubation process (much more on that later) and is far more effective than trying to combine work with creative thinking.

It makes sense too — we are often in two very different states of mind when absorbing an activity and when we are trying to create something.

I’ve found that my writing breaks down when I try to handle research + writing at the same time, and I’m much better off when I just turn off my “work mode” and consume more inspiration in the form of reading, watching, and observing.

7.) Create during a powerful mood

For a long time, the research has pointed to happiness as being the ideal state to create in.

Recently though, a relatively new study (2007) on creativity in the workplace made this bold conclusion:

Creativity increased when both positive and negative emotions were running high…

The implication seems to be that while certain negative moods can be creativity killers, they aren’t as universal as positive moods (joy, being excited, love, etc) in that sometimes they may spur creative thinking rather than hinder it.

I don’t want you to put yourself in a bad mood to create something, but next time you’re in a strong emotional state, try to sit down and focus that energy on creating something, the end result could be worthwhile.

8.) Get moving

Is there any wonder that ‘Exercising more” is one of the most desiredgood habits in the entire world?

Some research even suggests that exercise can actually boost creative thinking as well, due to it’s ability to get the heart pumping and put people in a positive mood. It’s similar to how other research shows that thinking about love can produce more creative thoughts; it’s not necessarily the act, it’s the change in mood.

If you’re stuck in a creative rut and want to take a break, try including exercise while your brain is subconsciously at work, it may help to speed up your “Aha!” moment.

9.) Ask, “What might have been?”

According to the research surrounding the process of counterfactual thinking, looking at a situation that has already occurred and asking yourself, “What could have happened?” can boost creativity for short periods of time.

According to an analysis by Jeremy Dean:

• Analytical problems are best tackled with a subtractive mind-set: thinking about what could have been taken away from the situation.
• Expansive problems benefited most from an additive counterfactual mind-set: thinking about what could have been added to the situation.

The Case for Really “Weird” Experiences

“Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experience.”

— Masaru Ibuka

Think about some of the most creative people you know (yourself included!)… chances are, they would be described as somewhat “weird” when compared to less creative people.

According to the research, the cause of this is often that these people have had abnormal things happen to them, or they pursue different experiences outright (maybe those two things are correlated?).

Researchers have found, for instance, that creative people tend to have had a traumatic event occur in their lives (such as parental loss, as noted in this study).

…but you don’t need to worry about needing a tragic event to be creative! Researchers have also found that creative people are more likely to pursue strange experiences as well, such as this research that reveals that living abroad is linked to creativity in the general population.

In a more recent study (2012) on creativity, the lead researcher concluded that…

“…diversifying experiences help people break their cognitive patterns and thus lead them to think more flexibly and creatively.”

A belief that many people hold, but now there is empirical proof: comparisons with various control groups have shown that a diversifying experience — defined as the active (but not vicarious) involvement in an unusual event — increased cognitive flexibility more than active (or vicarious) involvement in “normal” experiences.

Why is this the case?

The answer isn’t totally clear, but some research points to things like habituation and stagnation as being creativity killers, and these two things are generally “fought” with novel and unique experiences.

An important consideration then, is what constitutes “weird” for each person? The research at this point seems to indicate that it is more about the weirdness in relation to the person at hand, or that doing things outside of your normal habitual patterns can be enough to stimulate creativity, rather than there being a set of “weird” things to do that work for everyone.

So be sure to go out there and push your comfort zone… just don’t get too weird!

Can You Increase Creativity by Thinking About Others?

One interesting paradox in the realm of creativity seems to be what most of us would call, “beginner’s luck.”

In fact, a few studies have hinted that one factor that often blocks people’s creativity is their existing knowledge.

If, for instance, you are writing a song, you are likely the kind of person that saturates themself with the particular style of music you create. This familiarity is often at odds with “originality,” as your head is filled with melodies and you tend to feel that, “This has been done before…” when trying to create something new.

Many creative people struggle with this problem, but what can be done about it?

According to research surrounding the Construal-level theory of psychological distance, the answer may lie in thinking about the creative process in more “abstract” terms rather than in concrete terms.

As an example…

When thinking about a trip you might take to Paris next summer, you might focus on how much fun it would be or how great it would be to sit in a café and watch the world go by.

When thinking about a trip to Paris you are going to take next week, though, you focus on what you are going to wear, how you are going to exchange money, and what you will do when you encounter Parisians who speak no English.

In other words: Instead of getting down to the “nitty-gritty” when trying to be creative, you should try to distance yourself from the problem you are solving.

This coincides with other research that seems to point that coming up with “decisions” for others often results in more creative answers than when making decisions for oneself.

For instance, in one study on the matter, researchers had individuals perform a variety of creative tasks while varying the psychological distance between the task by having them either perform the tasks while thinking of themselves, or perform the tasks while thinking of others.

(The researchers used both creative & logic problems in this test)

As an example, it’s known that most people are notoriously bad at creating “unique” aliens because they often just mimic animal parts.

When the researchers asked the participants to draw an alien for a story that they would write later, they struggled and produced more aliens that contained typical animal traits.

When asked to draw an alien for a story that someone else would later write, the subjects were more likely to create novel traits (evaluated by independent raters) than their counterparts.

Other research in this area has found similar results, with a variety of different logic tests as well, thus making a strong claim that the phrase…

Learn as though you need to teach.

…may in fact translate well to creativity. Essentially, create as though you need to teach, or more generally, create as though the produced outcome will be for someone else.

Many artists and other creatives have made similar (albeit less scientific!) claims that support this notion, that perhaps the best way to be creative is to get your work out there and “escape” your own knowledge of the craft by pretending that you are being creative on behalf of someone else.

That will help you think about the problem more abstractly and avoid just repeating the solutions you already know about.